Just a note to those who are planning to get portrait sessions to give as holiday gifts.  Here’s the schedule:

November 26th – Thanksgiving Day – closed
November 27th – Day after Thanksgiving – closed, but taking appointments
November 28th – Open by appointment only
Sunday – Nov. 29th – Closed
November 30th – Evening, open by appointment only
December 1st -5th – by appointment only
Sunday – Dec. 6th – Closed
December 7th-11th – booked
December 12th – Last Chance – by appointment only

O, the Joys of moving a computer.  Today’s photographer has to be a computer geek if they want to compete in the digital world.  That means, if you move your office, you also have to move a bunch of computer stuff.

The result was deep depression and despair as I stared at the mass of wires that connect computer A to disk B and to keyboard C and to mouse D and to UBS hub E and to disk F and to monitor G and to …. to disk Z.  Oh, shoot!  I’m out of letters in the alphabet and there are still more cables.

A bag of zip-ties really helps.  The problem is, no matter how careful you are, the cables still end up looking like a bowl of high-tech spaghetti.  And, none of those little, or not so little wall-warts are the same size.  Some cover two holes on the power strip, some three.  Even the power strips made to accomodate them, don’t seem to do what they claim.

One you think you have everything connected correctly, you discover you forgot a vital  component.  And, in the process of trying to connect it, you have to cut all those zip-ties, unplug 3 or 4 things from your power strip and re-route that hard-to-reach cable behind the desk.  And, as you are about to plug that newly found component in, you discover you’re going to need a new power strip.

UGH!

I think my next computer is going to be one of those hp all-in-one with a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Le communiqué du CPP sur le massacre de Maguindanao: une quarantaine de morts suite à l’attaque par une milice privée d’un convoi organisé par un militant progressiste pour se rendre au bureau de la COMELEC, pour faire enregistrer sa candidature pour les élections générales du printemps prochain. Parmi les tués, certain-e-s de ses proches, des journalistes (une dizaine) et des juristes, des partisans.

Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
CPP condemns massacre in Maguindanao November 24, 2009

Le Parti communiste des Philippines exprime aujourd’hui sa plus forte condamnation du massacre d’un convoi d’au moins 40 personnes à Maguindanao, surtout des parents, avocats et partisans du maire adjoint Buluan Datu Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu qui défie le clan des seigneur de la guerre Ampatuan qui attend le poste de gouverneur de la province de Maguindanao.

Parmi les tués il y a la femme du maire Mangudadatu, Genalyn et au moins 12 journalistes qui couvraient le convoi.

Jusqu’ici, 24 corps ont déjà été trouvés dans des tombes peu profondes dans le village Salman près du massacre, beaucoup d’entre eux sont mutilés. La plupart des victimes étaient des femmes et montrent des indices d’abus sexuels.

Le CPP a dit que le grand nombre de journalistes tués dans l’incident a fait de ce jour le plus grand massacre de journalistes en une journée. Plus que jamais, il inscrit les Philippines parmi les pires pays dans le monde pour le travail des journalistes et pour y vivre.

Les victimes ont été interceptées sur la route du bureau provincial de la COMELEC dans Shariff Aguak pour y déposer la candidature d’Esmael Mangudadatu . Les témoins ont déclarés que le Maire de Shariff Aguak, Andal Ampatuan Jr lui-même dirigeait environ 100 hommes armés, y compris les forces de polices de Maguindanao et la milice privée d’Ampatuans, qui ont commis enlèvement et massacre. Le jeune Ampatuan projette de succéder à son père Andal Sr., comme gouverneur de Maguindanao mais fait face actuellement au formidable défi du maire adjoint Buluan. Les témoins ont aussi fait savoir que la sœur de cet Esmael, maire de Mangudadatu Eden Mangudadatu, a été même impliquée dans une brève altercation avec le Maire Ampatuan avant que le convoi ne soit battu par la force supérieure des attaquants.

“Tandis que Malacañang n’avait pas d’autre choix, que de « condamner » officiellement le massacre ,” a dit le CPP, “il fait face maintenant à un dilemme sérieux sur la façon dont traiter cette affaire. Le clan Ampatuan, qui avait étouffé l’opposition et avait rassemblé des votes ‘de commande’ pour favoriser Gloria Arroyo et ses alliés au cours des dernières élections a été remboursé avec le poste de gouverneur de la Région Autonome musulmane de Mindanao ainsi que de Maguindanao et du mayorship de beaucoup de villes dans la province.
Malacañang veut maintenant tirer profit de l’incident pour déclarer l’« Etat d’urgence» dans la province. »

Tout en désignant les chefs féodaux du clan d’Ampatuan, seigneur de la guerre, les miliciens de la Philippine National Police aussi bien que leur propre armée privée et leur allié Gloria Arroyo en tant que particulièrement responsable du massacre, Le CPP condamne également la violence qui a toujours marqué la traditionnelle politique électorale philippine.

“Le plus mauvais, au cours des élections récentes où les forces progressistes ont participé de plus en plus à la politique parlementaire, cela a été les chefs, les militants et les membres des partis progressistes et les candidats qui ont composé la grande majorité des victimes de la violence de politique réactionnaire. Une grande partie de cette violence est commise par les forces militaires gouvernementales elle-même,” déclare le CPP.

Référence :
Marco Valbuena
Media Officer
Cellphone : 09156596802 :: 09282242061
E-mail:cppmedia@gmail.com

Recently, someone was complaining to me that the photos they were having printed at a well-known pro-lab were coming out brown toned. 

I asked, “Do you mean ‘muddy’?”

They said muddy was a good description.   They said the colors were all off, dull, and washed out, and so forth.

I recognized right off the bat what they did.  They shot in Adobe RGB and sent the Adobe RGB file off to their lab.  They didn’t tell their lab to convert to sRGB, or the lab’s “color profile”, and so the lab just printed them.  (Remember, your lab will do what you tell them to do.)

Although printers are now coming on the market that support a wide gamut of color space, MOST printers are so much more narrow that Adobe RGB, and Adobe RGB was not designed with photography in mind.  Okay, neither was sRBG, but sRBG is a safer bet when printing.

So, if you do not want to take the time to learn about color management, at least set everything you own to sRGB.  Shoot in sRGB, edit in sRGB, and send it to your lab as a sRBG file.  Yes, it is a smaller color space, but you’ll be more pleased with the results than trying to print an Adobe RBG file.  You other option is to talk to your lab when you submit your files and tell them what color space you used, and ask them to convert.  They MIGHT charge a FEE!  Just beware.

Your other, and better option, is to learn how to manage color profiles.

Matagumpay na Ambus ng BHB-Catanduanes, Kinumpirma 

Kinumpirma ng Nerissa San Juan Command ng Bagong Hukbong Bayan (BHB) – Catanduanes and ambus na isinagawa laban sa tropa ng 83rd IBPA kahapon Nobyembre 22,  sa Brgy Jamlon, Caramoran, Catanduanes. Ayon sa panimulang ulat, nasapol ng command detonated landmine ang sinasakyang trak ng mga sundalo.

Itinatago ng 9th IDPA ang tunay na bilang ng kanilang casualty upang maliitin ang tagumpay ng BHB. Ayon sa ulat, pito ang sugatang militar na dinala sa ospital at marami pa ang sugatan.

Pauwi na galing sa isang counter-insurgency operations ang militar kasabay ang Batallion Commander na si Col. Romeo Basco nang ambusin ng BHB.

Ka Greg Bañares

Tagapagsalita, NDF-Bicol

Yesterday my wife and I were in Safeway and an older gentlemen in front of us didn’t have his Safeway club card to save $1 on cat litter.  So I gave him my club card to use and he saved the dollar.  The lady at the register said a dollar is a dollar and the guy was like I sure know that!  He was telling us how he was living off his pension which was around $750 a month.  I thought to myself $750 to live off of each month?! HOLY CRAP.  He really didn’t look like there was much hope in his eyes and just looked dejected with life.  I guess, $750 is not a lot of money.  He went on to say how earlier in his life he was sold on the idea that the Canadian Pension Plan would give him the freedom for his retirement.  Yeah umm he was totally sold a crock and $750 doesn’t buy you ANY freedom.  Who knows what CPP will be left for me when we retire!

So that’s why we are working hard to build this business and share it with others who want more out of life then $750 dollars when you turn 65.  There WON’T be any money for us when we turn 65 so it’s up to us to take our freedom into our own hands and this business will allow us to do that.  Isn’t that worth it?  Wouldn’t it just be worth it to at least try?  I think so and I totally believe.

I guess I forgot a few things yesterday, like what to get on your computer.

1) Get the fastest you can afford
2) Get the biggest hard drive you can afford
3) Make sure it has beaucoup USB 2.0 ports
4) Make sure it has Firewire ports
5) Make sure it has a built-in card reader (if it is a desktop – laptop – SD card reader)
6)  Make sure it is MAXED-out on memory – at least 4GB for a PC
7) Make sure it is a company that has been around a while so you don’t get stuck with a lemon

I’ve addressed lighting, what color to paint your studio, support systems, backdrops, size, now let’s talk about the most sensitive subject of them all — computers.

Photographers work in a world full of right- and left-brainers.  Some photographers are very abstract in their art, others are very calculated in theirs.  And just as you have those who take extremely abstract photos and those who take detailed technically correct photos, you also have those who are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to their choice of computers.

Apple or Mac?

Yup, that’s the question.  Well, if we were having this discussion back in 1995, and you wanted to do art or music, I’d say, purchase a Mac.  But, it is now 14 years later and the playing field has change, and changed a LOT!

Originally, the Mac was built on the Motorola 68000 family of processors.  The 68000 was far superior than the old Intel internally 8-bit 80×86 family of processors.  However, once Intel went to a larger internal word size, the difference started becoming less and less until finally, Apple switched to Intel processors.  So, now, both Macs and PCs are based on Intel processors.  (Interesting, eh?)

Now, the really big differences between the Mac and the PC boil down to these two things:

Open vs Close hardware architecture, and
Microsoft Windows vs Apple’s Mac OS.

Close architecture means Apple holds their hardware secrets among a selected group of developers within their little circle.  Open architecture means they are published standards that anyone can study and develop compatible devices.

I personally dislike closed-architecture computers.  It makes things more expensive and limits your choices.  If you want to see what I mean, look at the number of devices and the amount of software available for the PC vs the Mac.  Also, look the price of Mac vs PC software and devices.  Look at the price of a Mac Book vs a PC laptop.

You will hear people say, “Oh, PCs are always locking up on you.” 

I’ve got news.  Macs lock up too.

Bottom line is, buy what you feel comfortable with.  You can get great laptops that are PCs or you can get a Mac Book.  You can get great desktop units either way.  You WILL pay more for the same amount of computing power if you go with a Mac.  But, it is your money do what you want.

What do I have?

I have a PC.  I have a PC because I understand the hardware and software (I used to be a software developer and product manager for PC- and Mac-based products.)  And, I have a PC because I can afford to get the power I want.

I favor Hewlet-Packard products.  They have always been a good choice for me.  I have had Gateway PC, Toshiba, Dell and Compaq.  I keep coming back to HP’s products.

Currently, here is an overview of what I use in the studio:

• Desktop – HP PC with a 2.8GHz dual-core processor, 4 GB RAM, 2 GB Turbo-boost, dual 350 GB HDs and Windows Vista Ultimate.
• Server – HP PC with a 2GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 200GB internal HDs, Windows XP
• Storage – 4TB on a 4-drive Drobo, 6 external drives ranging from 250 to 750GB in size – the Drobo is on my desktop, all the others are on my server.  The Drobo holds my work-in-progress, while the drives on the server are my archives.
• Optical media – all of my machines have DVD burners
• Monitors – LaCie 19″ (desktop) and a Samsung 19″ (server) – both LCD
• Networking – 100BaseT with WiFi for my laptop
• Laptop -HP with a Turion64×2 processor, 4GB RAM, 2GB Turbo-boost, 250GB HD and Windows Vista 64-bit
• Color-management – LaCie blue eye 2
• Software – latests version of Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2.5, Corel Painter 9, ProShowGold, Media Chance DAP and HDR, Kodak GEM Airbrush, GEM, ROC and SHO, Adobe Flash,  Portrait Professional,  OpenOffice and QuickBooks QuickStart, as well as various filters, actions and utilities.

Camera support systems are good for studio work.  A lot of photographers work hand-held, but there are times when a tripod is nice – especially if your camera is really heavy.

I’ve tried both tripods and studio stands.  The nice thing about studio stands are they are quick to adjust.  The nice thing about tripods are, they are light and easy to move from place to place.  The bad thing about studio stands are they are very heavy.   The bad thing about tripods are their flaired leg arrangement  is easy to trip over.

When using studio stands, the best heads are ball heads or gear heads.  Ball heads are quick to adjust, but harder to get precision adjustments.  Gear heads adjust slowly and precisely.

Tripod heads come in all types and sorts.  My favorite are ball heads.    I’ve tried joy-stick stylee grip heads, three-way heads, pan-n-tilt type heads and when it comes down to it, ball heads are so simple and quick.  And, when it comes to ball heads, pay a little extra for a heavy-duty one.

I will state that I’m not very pleased with Monfrotto equipment.  Their after-sales support is virtually non-existent with my experience.   Nor would I recommend the consumer brands like Slik or the cheap ones you see in department stores like Velbon or Ambico.  But, if you are looking to save money, I have had good experiences with Amvona’s customer support and they make a sturdy tripod for the price. 

As to heads, there are LOTs of good heads out there.  Find a place where you can see and touch them.  That’s the only way to really see how well a head is built.

The C (and C++) preprocessor is a powerful but dangerous tool. For sure, it helps with a number of problems, from conditional code inclusion to explicit code generation, but it has a few problems. In fact, more than a few. It is evil.

The C preprocessor (hereafter CPP) should be used with extreme care. For one thing, the CPP doesn’t know about the language it is applied on, it merely proceeds to the translation of the input using very simple rules, and this can leads to tons of hard to detect—and to fix—problems.

There are at least two problems I can think of that renders the use of macros as function dangerous and annoying. The first is that since the CPP is basically a big find-and-replace machine, it is not particularly smart on how macros are expanded. The second is that since the CPP is basically a big find-and-replace machine, it’s not particularly smart on when macros are expanded.

Macro used as function are declared like this:

#define function(arg1,arg2) ...stuff with arg1 and arg2...

(and the number of arguments can vary, but two is a good example) and are invoked:

y = function(x+3,4);

As would be a normal function most of the times. The problem is, they’re not functions, they’re merely textual substitution patterns. The above will textually replace the values for arg1 and arg2 in the macro body and paste it at invocation point. The expansion is so basic that in most case, you will need to use extra parentheses to make sure that operation precedence is respected. For example:

#define function(arg1,arg2) arg1 + arg2
...

x=function(x << 3, 5)

will result in bad behaviour: the operator<< has a lower priority than +, so you’ll end up with x << (3+5) rather than the expected (x<<3)+5. The correct way is to define:

#define function(arg1,arg2) ( (arg1) + (arg) )

So to force the correct precedence of evaluation in the final expression.

This is a somewhat simple case and any programmer that had his fingers bitten once by that kind of bug knows to put parentheses and that’s about it. However, if adding extra parentheses helps with operator precedence, it has another problem. Consider:

#define max(a,b)  ( (a) > (b) ? (a) : (b) )

...

x=max(a[i++],b[j++])

In this code, you cannot easily predict how many times i++ or j++ are executed. Inspecting the macro expansion, we see that the code is now:

x=( (a[i++])>(b[j++]) ? (a[i++]) : (b[j++]) )

Which isn’t the desired result at all! In short, macro used as functions are evil. Because macro expansion is dumb, arguments may be evaluated any number of times. Because macro expansion is dumb, arguments may be evaluated in any order and maybe their expressions will be merged with another expression to yield an unexpected result—as in the shift example above.

*
* *

The other major problem with the CPP is that it doesn’t understand scoping or namespaces. For example, the following code spews compilation errors:

...

#define max(a,b) ...
...
class A
 {
  private:

    int a,b;

    ...

  public:

  int max() const { ... } // clearly a member function

  ...
 }

Because max() looks like a function, the CPP tries to match it with a macro and the compiler complains that macro.cpp:19:12: error: macro "max" requires 3 arguments, but only 1 given (why one and not zero? I don’t know! That’s what G++ returns). Even a non-function macro can be worth a lot of problems:

#define shift 3

int function( int a, int b)
 {
  int shift=0; // clearly a local variable
  ...more code...
 }

 ...

This time, it complains with:

macro.cpp:28: error: expected unqualified-id before numeric constant

Which is somewhat cryptic.

The same happens with namespaces. Qualifying a symbol with an explicit namespace doesn’t stop the CPP to expand macros whenever there’s something that looks like a match:

#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>

#define max(a,b,c) ...stuff...

// ...lot more code goes here...

int main()
 {
  int a=0;
  int b=3;

  std::cout << std::max(a,b) // clearly NOT the macro
            << std::min(a,b)
            << std::endl;
 }

The CPP replaces the macro max( ) but the compiler encounters errors:

macro.cpp:12:28: error: macro "max" requires 3 arguments, but only 2 given
macro.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
macro.cpp:12: error: no match for ‘operator<<’ in ‘std::cout << std::max’
-- follows 20 more lines of error --

*
* *

The first solution is to avoid macro as much as possible. In C++, prefer template and inline functions to macros used as functions. The first advantage of using a true function is that the arguments are evaluated only once. For example, if the macro arguments contains code that has a side effect (like i++, for example) it is not easy to predict how many times it will be executed in the expanded statement.

Inline functions (available in C++ and C99, and in C as a compiler-specific extension) solve all problems of macro as functions. First, they ensure that the parameters are evaluated only once. Second, they offer the complete function semantics which aren’t all available with macros. For example, you can’t build a local scope and return a value with a macro in a clean way. Third, they are always syntactically safe, yet another thing that is not ensured by macros, especially when used in compound statements.

The fact that inline functions are functions and may require an actual function call if the compiler can’t inline the functions should really not stop you from using them. First, if the function is big enough so that the compiler can’t (or wont) inline it, you certainly don’t want it as a macro. Second, the time for a function call is dominated by the time it takes to evaluate the arguments, so it is eventually negligible.

*
* *

Since not all code bases seems to be aware of the problem inherent to the CPP, you may have to deal with stupid macro names—even include guards. Paradoxically, a macro named max is a lot more stupid than a macro named my_max_macro, as it more likely to interfere with user code than the latter. The defencive solution to this problem is to undefine macros known to cause problems:

#include <some-header>

#ifdef max
 #warning 'max' is defined as a macro. Undefining.
 #undef max
#endif

...more code...

Or you can simply #undef it quietly. I do prefer warnings, because it informs the programmer/maintainer that this was deliberate and that he should not expect the macro max to be available in this translation unit.

The proactive solution is to use smarter names for macros. You can of course use BIG_UGLY_CAPS for macros, but you can also use the underscore to specify that this is a compiler- or library-specific symbol, as suggested by the standards. The macro _max is already much better than just max, even though it may still interfere with some naming conventions. Note that double underscores are reserved recommended mandatory for compiler-specific extensions such as __attribute__ and the like. A macro named __max__ would imply that the macro is somehow special and compiler-specific.

*
* *

So, basically, the CPP is a good tool for testing the environment, check for defined macros, and for conditional compilation but a very, very, very bad tool for code generation. I can understand that it is tempting to use macros in C (and C99) as a weak substitute for meta-programming as there are really no facilities provided by the language.

In C++, however, we have all the tools needed: function and operator overloading, and powerful meta-programming through templates. The careful use of C++ meta-programming can lead to very efficient, compile-time optimized code.

When working in any  editing program it is important to save often.  Whether it be Photoshop or Painter, destructive edits can leave you in a quandry if you are not careful.  Thus, doing a “save” on a frequent basis is helpful.

That said, be careful.  A save can also be the worst thing in the world.  If you save something, and then discover you made a big mistake, you could have saved yourself into a mess.

So, my tip for today is, do a “Save as…” and give it a new name.  For example, the first save you might at a 1 at the end of the name.  The 2nd “save as…” change the 1 to a 2, and so on.

By doing this, you can always go back to a previous step.

Neste 14/11/2009, o portal Embarcados e o grupo C & C++ Brasil com a produção da Tempo Real Eventos realizou, no Hotel Century Paulista em São Paulo, a edição 2009 do Seminário C & C++ para Sistemas Embarcados. Mais uma vez esta foi uma experiência extremamente gratificante,  principalmente pela satisfação que alguns colegas, amigos e o público em geral demonstraram durante o desenvolvimento do seminário e pós sua realização.

O DQ, da Tamid, realizou em seu blog algumas notas e abaixo segue alguns comentário que não representa nem 1% do que foi o seminário:

- O evento iniciou com uma palestra sobre Interfaces de Periféricos com Microcontroladores em C do DQ, que mostrou-se um excelente conteúdo para um Hands On com o subtítulo de “21 formas de piscar um led com linguagem C em vários microcontroladores”!

- Na sequência foi a palestra do Luiz Barros, sobre Otimização de C++ para Sistemas Embarcados, que foi bem interessante e acabei em vários momentos dando meus pitacos, curiosamente mais uma vez confirmei que em aplicações com a plataforma SH4, C++ tem sido amplamente utilizado, durante o evento desenvolvedores de cinco empresas deram este feedback para mim.

- Durante o almoço, entre bits e bytes, conversamos de flamewares (e lembrei da lei do ricbit), assembly vs C++, surgiu a conversa de um projeto que me relataram muito inusitado de um sistema, onde… bom, deixa eu voltar para os relatos do seminário! :^p

- Após o almoço, o Alessandro Cunha, da TechTrainning, apresentou uma palestra que foi muito pontual tanto no assunto quanto no tempo consumido. Nos primeiros contatos com ele, fiz uma sugestão besta de tema e ele conseguiu extrair algo de bom da besteira que apresentei e formatou uma obra prima: Projetando Sistemas Embarcados com Baixo Consumo de Energia, com dicas preciosas que cativaram o público.

E encerrando o conteúdo técnico do seminário,  o Luiz Barros desmistificou o “Desenvolvimento de Device Driver para GNU/Linux”, derepente surgiram algumas pessoas no evento e quando fui conferir descobri que elas vieram apenas para ver esta palestra, alguns até começaram a dizer que perderam o medo do device drivers development. Particularmente nunca tive medo, porém device driver & kernel development é uma arte negra…

Anteriormente ajudei a enumerar 17 formas de acender um led e derepente, não mais que derepente, fez-se a teatralização da piada:

- “quantos engenheiros são necessários para acender um led”

do qual eu participei desta teatralização como coadjuvante, no qual entrei mudo e sai calado e depois me disseram que a resposta seria:

-  ”um de hardware, um de firmware e um de software” (tsc)…

Mas o Alessandro Cunha foi além e pensou em escrever o livro 2001 formas de acender um led, mas nem só de led foi o seminário! Houve CAN, RS232, SPI, microcontroladores, C, C++ e felizmente tive a oportunidade rever alguns amigos e realizar alguns contatos preciosos. Particularmente fiquei feliz que uma sugestão que eu dei a Microgênios foi levada a sério e hoje eles também estão produzindo e comercializando a plataforma Arduino no Brasil, assim como troquei figurinhas  sobre os bugs da BeagleBoard com o Luis Barros, conheci um pouco mais sobre a plataforma Tower com vários colegas, vi uma apresentação de uns alunos do Dado, numa EVDK Luminary,  de uns jogos desenvolvidos em eLua que poderiam seduzir muitos aficcionados em jogos; entre muitas outras conversas.

Finalizando oficialmente evento, realizamos um sorte de brindes oferecidos por Texas Instruments, Freescale, Atmel/Kobama, Editora Erica, Tempo Real Eventos, Agit Informática e Microgênios, onde as fotos dos ganhadores podem ser vistas aqui.

Mais uma vez, fui um dos primeiros a chegar no local e um dos últimos a sair do happy hour, que aliás, como sempre, foi uma extensão do evento e o início da organização dos próximos eventos.

Namastê!!!

The next thing I learned about building a studio is that you need a backdrop support system.  There are basically 4 categories of backdrops – canvas, seamless paper, muslin and solid panels. 

Canvas and seamless require a roller system.  This is a big tube or pipe that the backdrop rolls on to.  Canvas has a nice even surface and is quite durable.  Paper has a very smooth surface, but can damaged easily.

Muslin has to be clipped or attached to some horizontal bar or support.  When stored, it is just stuffed in a sack.  Part of its quality is that it gets wrinkled and that’s okay.  They are typically cheaper than canvas.

Solid panels come in all sorts of sizes and materials.  The problem is storage.  Where do you put a 4×8 foot chunk of  plywood or a 5×7x1 foot foam wall?  The advantages are they can look like most any solid object.  I’ve seen some that look like a wall of metal gears, a brick wall with a window, and abstract shapes.

My studio in California had tracks on the ceiling (4 different ones) for hanging muslin backdrops.  It worked great.  By having 4 different sets of tracks, I could establish depth, hang scrims, or other props from the tracks.  It was very versatile.  I’m going to use the same tracks here.

I have never wished for canvas rollers, although on occasions I wish I had a set up for seamless paper.  But, if I only had one option, it would be a set up for muslins.

I also use 3d solid props.  I love them.  I have wood walls, stucco walls with bricks, stone walls, and a huge rubber wall that looks like rusty metal.  (The teenagers love them too.)

When I opened my studio in 2001, it was right at the brink of the digital revolution.  I would ask questions at the camera store about lighting with digital and I got all sorts of strange answers.  Things like strobes won’t work, strobes will work just fine, digital doesn’t have enough f-stop (whatever that meant), etc.   What I discovered was, they didn’t know what they were talking about.

My first digital SLR did not have a x-sync socket, but it did have a flash and flash-shoe.  I thought I would use my built-in flash to trigger studio lights (i.e. slave the studio lights).  I couldn’t understand why I had to drop my f-stop down to 2.8 and shutter speed down to 1/15th of a second.  This just didn’t make sense.

Well, it turns out, many built-in flashes do a “pre-flash” before the real flash.  In some cameras, this is so fast, your eye won’t detect it, but your flash slaves WILL.

Once I discovered that, I bought a little delay device that ignored the 1st flash, and triggered the studio flashes on the 2nd flash.  This only lasted a little while because I quickly upgraded to a Canon 10D.  (I was on that 10D when it came out faster than… well, you can add your own simile here.)

Lesson learned – buy a camera that has an x-sync socket!!!

The next lesson I learned about lighting is that no two mono lights are alike.  I researched the heck out of it, and most of the pros were recommending equipment that was no longer made.  I had the money to invest and wanted something new.  I wound up getting Excalibur lights.  I bought 2 640 Watt-second lights, and 1 320 WS light. 

My lights were a mistake.  Nobody told me that these 640 WS Excalibur lights were lemons.  Both 640 units were returned for repairs often and not long after the warranty was up, they died.

More research.  By now, some people were posting stuff about mono-lights.  It wasn’t just the pros any more.  All sorts of people were investing in studio lighting.

This time, I decided on Paul C. Buff’s stuff.  Now, the cool thing about him is he started making a less-expensive light series called Alien Bee.  I now have 3 Alien Bee lights and I have no complaint.  One, I broke a part by over tightening it.  They sent me the part at no charge and they did so quickly.  Now, that’s service.

Paul’s higher end stuff, White Lightening, is compatible with the Alien Bee stuff, and is built a little tougher.  That said, Paul has me sold on the quality of his equipment.

Let me say something about power-pack and dependent strobes.  I toyed around with this idea.  They do have the advantage that you can adjust everything from the power pack.  However, you have cables that have to be run to the power pack from each light.  I figured, if you have to run a cable to each light, I’d rather have the cable go to a wall socket, and not some central point.  Besides, I don’t find it that big of a deal to walk to each light and make adjustments.  Most of the time, we’re talking 2 or maybe 3 lights.  It isn’t a big deal.

I did have a Photogenic light.  They too are built well.  Both Photogenic and Buff have a remote that can be attached to the lights for doing one-point adjustments (like you can with a power pack).  There are many out there that I have had no experience with.  I’m sure there are both good and bad ones.  I will say, however, no-names, or too-good-to-be-true deals are typically trouble.

As to how powerful of a light you should get, keep this in mind – if the light can be adjusted down to 1/16th or 1/32nd power, (that’s 4 to 5 f-stops), then get a real powerful unit.  Go with 640 ws or higher.   You can always cut down on the light, but you can never go beyond 100% power.

You will also want a flash meter.  Digital has a very narrow latitude when it comes to exposure.  Go for a high-end meter.  I like Sekonic meters.  Don’t scrimp.  Also, make sure the model you select can be used as a lightmeter too.

Shot with Alien Bee 800 w/30x60" softbox

Formatação e negritos por Megaf.

Notícia retirada do portal Guia do Hardware.

Now, here’s a thing I found very little on except if you’re going to do a white wall, and that is painting your studio and covering the floor.  My California studio was white walls, white ceiling and a tan carpet.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  Had I stayed there longer, I would have re-done it.

First, let’s take the floor.  Carpet makes for a lousy studio floor.  No two ways about it.  Plush carpet causes your clients feet to sink deep into it.  And, if you have a backdrop over it, and someone with heals steps on it, you have a hole in your backdrop. 

If I were doing the floor over again, it would be a hard surface.  You can always cover a hard surface with about anything you want for a temporary covering.  My new studio is going to have gray epoxy covered concrete floors.

White walls…  what was I thinking!    White walls bounce the light all over the place.  They make it difficult to control lighting without putting up some sort of black scrim to block the bounce.  And, a white ceiling is even more difficult.  Paint the ceiling black.  I’m going to go 50% gray on the walls this time.  I figure a flat gray will reduce the amount of bounce, and I can always scrim white or black depending on what I want to get.

Colored walls can cause color casts.  I like the idea of having props like doors, or panels that can be brought out.  I also know some people who paint frequently to get different looks.  That’s fine too.  Just like any backdrop, you deal with the color cast.  However, if you have an adjacent orange wall, and you are shooting next to a blue back drop, you might get some undesirable skin tones.

If you have windows, have blinds on them.  If you want to control your light, you should control all of it in your studio.  Shifts in the sun can cause changes between shots.  If you’ve metered your lights, you don’t want to have to re-meter because the sun went behind a cloud.

You can also do some neat things with neutral colored walls.  Gels can let you shoot light on to the wall to get a different color and effect.